19th Century farming on a slave-holder farm in Maryland from "The Silence of Sorrowful Hours"

In contrast to the master’s house, the slave quarters were like a small village made up of several one-room cabins, a smoke house, a smithing barn, and a stable for five mules and two workhorses. The slaves, farm hands, and farm manager rose at 3:00 a.m. to feed, water, and harness the horses, milk the cows, and feed the pigs and poultry. Then they hauled wood for the stoves. Breakfast was at seven – beefsteak or pork, eggs, fried potatoes, fruit pie, hominy cakes, fritters, and coffee.

Planting and harvesting went on from April to October. The spring started with plowing, rolling, pull­ing up stumps, and burning refuse. They prepared the fields for sowing and spread manure over the plantings. Besides field work there were fence posts and rails to be fitted, gates to be maintained, stalls to be mucked, grain to be threshed, and apples to be dried or mashed to cider.

In July, hay and wheat were harvested using a mowing machine and reaper or cutting it down with scythes. The cut grains were raked together and taken to the barn where the wheat was shucked and sorted.  Bar­ley and rye were mowed by hand. September and October were the months to bring in the potatoes, corn, and beans. Oats were threshed and corn was husked. Then the fields were plowed up and the next season’s wheat crop was planted.